Psalm 150, the last of the ‘Hallelujah’ psalms and the last psalm in the whole book, is a summons to praise. Psalm 1 talks of the blessed life and is a summons to obedience; here, at the end of the book of Psalms, we have an exuberant call to praise the Lord with an orchestra of instruments and a wildness of wonder. Kilnam Cha says that “praise is the goal toward which the Psalter moves” and Brueggemann comments that it is “the most extreme and unqualified statement of unfettered praise in the Old Testament.” Literally everything that has breath is commanded to praise the Lord; once again, this psalm tackles fundamental questions about praise:
- Who is to be praised (God)
- Where God is to be praised (in His sanctuary)
- Why God is to be praised (for His acts of power and surpassing greatness – what He does/ who He is)
- How God is to be praised (with an array of musical instruments and dancing)
- By whom God is to be praised (by everything that has breath)
Praise, in the experience of this psalm, is multi-sensory. It is aural (we hear the instruments and the music and the singing), kinaesthetic (for there is movement in dance and in lifting hands) and visual. It is something which engages the mind, soul and spirit; it is not something tepid and unexciting. Boice challenges us when he says, “Let’s be done with worship that is always weak and unexciting. If you cannot sing loudly and make loud music to praise the God who has redeemed you in Jesus Christ and is preparing you for heaven, perhaps it is because you do not really know God or the gospel at all. If you do know him, hallelujah.” We have so many reasons to praise God (in this psalm, we are urged to praise Him ‘for His acts of power’ and for His ‘surpassing greatness’) that it is really not hard to count our blessings! As 2018 draws to a close, look back and remember all the reasons to praise the God of the whole earth….and then get on and praise the Lord!
